Few people still heat with wood, but it’s still a very economical way to warm a building, especially with highly efficient fireplace inserts or new clean-burning technologies such as the rocket stove.
The most popular way to deal with excess of fireplace ash is in a nice sturdy metal ash bucket next have next to your fire area. Just make sure you never confuse your cremation urns with your ash buckets!
Back in the 1800s, everyone knew what these bright red buckets meant. They were as easily recognizable then as stop signs are today.
If you’ve ever spent several minutes wrestling with a well sealed snap lid you may have experienced what I call “bucket fingers.”
There’s actually a trick to opening a bucket lid. Pull out on the lip rather than up. But some lids are so stubborn that even this secret pro bucket-wrangler technique isn’t enough.
Prior to using a bucket wrench, I used to get such bad bucket fingers that for a while I’d lose the feeling in my finger tips!
Want to know if your buckets are food grade? Checking is easy, just find the recycling symbol and cross reference with this article.
The best food grade buckets are HDPE, symbol #2. HDPE represents high-density polyethylene. The molecules of HDPE are more tightly packed and stable than other food grade plastics, meaning less plastic can leach into your precious food stores. HDPE also builds a better bucket since it’s a very sturdy type of plastic.
Sometimes, a plastic bucket just doesn’t cut the salami. That’s when you have to recruit the only material stronger, tougher and more versatile – steel.
Metal 5 gallon buckets are much harder to find than standard plastic ones. They’re also more expensive. Metal has been replaced with plastic in most applications. The only exceptions I can find are paints, industrial lubricants and other similar heavy industrial applications. Continue reading
